Gold Star Membership fee is $55 per 12-month period from the date of enrollment. This entitles the primary member to one personalized membership card and Spouse card, available to a spouse or a family member 18 years of age or older living at the same address. Each primary member may name up to 6 secondary cardholders for $55 each and corresponding Spouse cardholders at no additional cost.
Public schools playing at the Division II level without a football program have the lowest costs. (All costs are measured in 2013 dollars.) With 1,000 students, their per-student costs for athletics are about $2,500. If they have more than 3,000 students, their per-student costs fall to around $1,000. For public schools playing FBS football, the costs are much higher, but so too are the numbers of students. At 10,000 students the per-student costs are around $4,400; at 20,000 students the costs are about $2,600; and for a truly large state school with 40,000 students, the costs fall to just over $1,500.
Public universities competing in NCAA Division I sports spend as much as six times more per athlete than they spend to educate students. Alabama athletes celebrate after winning the 2012 SEC Championship game. In 2010, the SEC spent an average of $163,931 per athlete. (Photo: David Goldman, AP).